This Bonkers Schwarzenegger B-Movie Is Streaming Now on Starz
If you've ever wondered what it would look like if Arnold Schwarzenegger led a DEA death squad in a movie written like a Redbox fever dream — Sabotage is your answer. And now, it's streaming on Starz.
Released in 2014, Sabotage was billed as a gritty action-thriller with a stacked cast and a big-name director. What audiences got instead was a gloriously chaotic B-movie held together by testosterone, slow-motion gunfire, and dialogue that sounds like it was written by someone who just watched Heat and Predator back-to-back on Monster energy drinks.
The setup: Arnold plays John "Breacher" Wharton, a DEA agent whose elite task force steals $10 million from a drug cartel. Then someone starts picking them off one by one. That's about as much plot as you're going to get — the rest is blood, bullets, and body armor.
Who's in it:
- Arnold Schwarzenegger
- Sam Worthington
- Terrence Howard
- Joe Manganiello
Yes, it's that kind of cast — the one that makes you think, "Wait, this should've been a bigger deal," right before realizing why it wasn't.
Directed by: David Ayer, whose filmography is a rollercoaster of "this rules" (End of Watch) to "why does this exist" (Suicide Squad). Sabotage sits somewhere in the middle — a movie that takes itself seriously while still managing to feel like a parody of itself.
Some actual lines of dialogue:
- "Some of us are getting paid. The rest of us are getting dead."
- "Ammo's cheap. My life ain't."
- "Spend enough time on the job, the job bites back."
And that's just scratching the surface of the macho nonsense packed into this thing.
Here's how it fared when it came out:
- Budget: $35 million
- Worldwide box office: $22.1 million
- Rotten Tomatoes: 22%
- Audience Score: 38%
So yes, it bombed. But in classic B-movie fashion, that almost adds to the appeal. It's gory, loud, dumb, and absolutely shameless — and that's exactly what some people are looking for when they fire up Starz at 10:30 p.m. on a Tuesday.
If you're in the mood for Schwarzenegger going full Ayer-core, complete with cartel shootouts, betrayal, and a whole lot of tactical vests, Sabotage is sitting there waiting for you. Just don't go in expecting The Terminator.